Family Jamm Review

Jestyr

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Dec 16, 2003, 1:13:24 PM12/16/03

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Wow. It was fantastic - I am so glad I went. Now having said that -
the show was not without its flaws. First, the choice of venue was
poor. The Great Western Forum is really a sporting events center and
not designed for optimal concert enjoyment, so the sound (which is
very important to me) was boomy and horrid. Also, I waited in a line
outside freezing for a half hour before we were told it was for the
VIPs and we regular ticket holders could go right in the arena any
time. Once I was in, I bought a program and climbed down to the floor
seating and discovered I had a perfect spot. Section B Row 5 seat 11.
Right dead center. Section A was to my left and section C was to the
right so I was in prime position for the show to start at 7:30. By 8pm
however I realized the whole front section was still missing, all
first four rows in each section; which meant all the VIP ticket
holders were still doing their meet n greet thing and the show was
going to be very late. Looking around the arena I was very
disappointed to see that it was not even a third full and I found out
later that they sold less than 3,000 tickets out of a possible 7,000.
That made me a little sad, until I realized that meant that would make
it a more intimate show for us.

The stage was all set up prior to the show, with two three-tiered
risers split into a 'V' with every instrument ready to go. Brilliant
move considering the amount of break down and set up that they'd have
to do for each act. They had every single thing up there already! The
one thing I wasn't thrilled about was that they had a 'house band'
that backed up every act. These were musicians Sheila knew. Two
keyboardists, Two background singers, one drummer and a bass player
and three piece horn section. Kat Dyson played guitar as well. They
stayed up in the back line throughout the entire show. The problem is
mixing all those instruments with each acts' own instruments creates a
wall of sound that makes the Forum acoustics even less appealing.

Lights went down a little after 8 and our hostess Carmen was
introduced and she was very vivacious and very appreciative of us all
and looked really hot. All her introductions were very well written
and she made the whole thing very exciting. The crowd (small as it
was) roared and stood as our first act was introduced:

JILL JONES
Wow. Was I impressed with her! I knew the 'singers' would only get one
song each, but I have to say she did enough with this one song to
compete with all the band acts! She did MIA BOCA with the house band
and just WORKED the crowd with it. She wore a perfect simple short
black dress and her hair is jet black and straight and she just knows
how to slink and pout and made the whole tune just electric! Great
execution and hit every vocal nuance form the recording. I never knew
Jill was such a dynamic performer, in fact I don't remember her ever
doing a show, but man she's cool. She left me with the impression that
she is one of the protégé's that 'gets it': she doesn't take it all
too seriously, sort of winks at us as if to say, 'yea this material is
kitschy, but I'm still a pro and I know it means a lot to you guys'. I
applauded so loud for her.

APOLLONIA
Next up, in complete contrast, was Apollonia. This was horrendous. She
tottered out in this weird sparkly red halter top and disco silver
miniskirt combo that a woman her age has no business getting into. Her
face is still beautiful, but man that skirt was so tightly wrapped
around her huge thighs and pulled down so low that you could see a
roll of flab like a little belt around the top - really grossed me
out. She looked so ghetto. And of course she was never really a singer
and performed TAKE ME WITH U with the house band letting the
background singers take most of the performance. She even forgot the
second verse, but by that time the audience had taken over the song
anyway. I just barely suffered through that one. It was like Karaoke.

MADHOUSE
Finally some musicians! Another performance that just knocked me out.
Carmen introduced the members as each one strode onto the stage: Matt
(Doctor) Fink, Eric Leeds and Sheila E – just the three of them! The
bass player from the house band came down to complete the line up.
They plowed right in to TEN and just blew every one away! Maybe the
tunes are much simpler than I realize but I couldn't believe they
could remember those arrangements after all this time! Fink's keyboard
was a bit buried at points, but his solos cut through and garnered
much applause. Eric was brilliant as ever and Sheila - wow. They did
THIRTEEN next and that was cut off by SIX which just made the place
erupt! Sheila took a drum solo in this that was epic. She beat the
fuck out of those skins, man! I've never seen it's equal. Lost sticks
too. I tell ya - I think she was trying to show up John Blackwell who
was in the audience. I forgot to mention Roy Bennett, Prince's tour
lighting guy for years, did the lights and his colored strobe effect
during her solo made it so much more intense, we were stunned! They
closed their set with SIXTEEN and just cooked it so tight we all
leaped up and cheered.

CHAKA KAHN
I think it was at this point that Carmen introduced Chaka to do I FEEL
4 U, but it could have been after. Anyway, nothing very impressive.
Another Karaoke performance, to the house band, even worse than
Apollonia's. I've heard that Chaka suffers from a horrible stage
fright these days and maybe that explains it, but she seemed to let
the audience sing the tune while she wailed her usual screams out. The
band was adequate, but I've decided I don't like Chaka; I think she's
full of it and a little too much diva attention has allowed her to
'get fat'. Literally.

THE FAMILY
This introduction got the biggest rise out of the crowd yet. Carmen
introduced them as 'truly a band of number ones' (one album, one
concert, one video), she read off each name and the members all
strolled out from the middle of the stage (from under a black curtain)
and just took over! It was so heart-warming to see them all together
again, since they had rehearsed for six long months to play just one
gig back in '85 and then split up. They were so good! St Paul looks
younger now than he did back then! He has a cool trendy shag hair cut
and wore none of the New Wave make up, very simply dressed in jeans.
Susannah looked wonderful with the short curly blond hair she's had
recently and wearing a short green mini skirt and a light robe - sort
of 'implying' the look they had back then (no silk PJs though). Jerome
came out in a felt blue suit looking all dap and was workin the crowd
in his usual Jerome fashion, Jellybean set up in his drum set and Miko
in a very cool velvet patchwork outfit and fop cap, played his chicken
grease funk stage left. Eric took his place next to Paul. I couldn't
believe they were all there and what a show! They launched right into
RIVER RUN DRY just like at the First Avenue show they did all those
years ago. Hit the vocals perfectly and even did some of the moves
from the original performance. I was very surprised at how good Paul's
voice is and how strong Susannah projects. They were really enjoying
each other and everyone had little moments to connect. They followed
that with SCREAMS OF PASSION which got a raving crowd response and
they all did the little shoulder move thing during the turnaround
parts. So endearing. At one point Paul was working the crowd stage
left and Susannah was dancing around and backed up into Jerome who
reached his arm around her and just held her, dancing as she turned
her face up to him and smiled. Little moments like that are the reason
I went. NOTHING COMPARES 2 U was electric and so sweet to see Paula
and Susannah act out their parts. Eric up front at the keys. Jerome
did the James Brown ‘shoulder cover gag' with a silk PJ robe to St
Paul that he wore the rest of the set. Perfect versions of HIGH
FASHION and MUTINY followed and the roof was tore off! At one point
Jerome came down through the crowd and circled our floor seats. They
left the stage to huge applause and I seriously think they had the
most fun of all the bands there. Just to see these people interact
with each other again was such a treat. I would like to see them do
more gigs, there's so much potential there.

I forgot to say that each band gathered its members for stage bows
after their sets and that was a nice little closing moment for each
performance, to see the camraderie and joy on each of their faces.

PATTI LABELLE
This was cute. She came out to perform YO MISTER and just totally
rocked. She's good at performing even the most awkward material and
making it work, but what was funny is that by the second verse she had
no idea what the lyrics were and had her eyes glued to the floor where
it became obvious a lyric sheet was taped. Eventually she got fed up
with it and knelt down to scoop up the sheets and proceeded to sing
right off the papers, like it was rehearsal! Handled like a pro I say!
Afterwards she said, "That was a song Prince wrote for me a thousand
years ago – I didn't know the lyrics then, and I still don't know them
now – that‘s why Miss Patti had to bend down and pick the damn paper
up to sing the damn song!" Cracked us all up. She did her wailing
routine a bit which can be annoying, but she's another one who 'gets
it' - in a different way - but she just ‘gets it'.

SHEILA E.
Sheila's father came out to introduce her and broke us all up with the
comment "I taught her everything I know. No REALLY – I did!" That was
sweet. He seems like a cool Dad. They introduced each band member –
all musicians from the Purple Rain tour during the recording of
Romance 1600, so their faces were familiar from the album, but I had
certainly never seen these people play before, and there they were
hitting every note as if they were still touring on Purple Rain!
They're really good but the arrangements were a little stretched out
from the original recordings so when they started OLIVER'S HOUSE
(after the SISTER FATE intro) with Sheila mumbling the lyrics (I think
she forgot them in the excitement) no one knew what it was until the
chorus hit. They followed with great versions of THE BELLE OF ST MARK
and A LOVE BIZARRE which included a little jazzy section with a ‘guest
appearance' from Lyn Mabry (Sheila pretended to drag her on) singing
lines from ONE NATION UNDER A GROOVE. HOLLY ROCK was a nice surprise
and Sheila went off on the timbales during that one. Next up was
17DAYS which the crowd went nuts for. As a matter of fact – we sang so
loud Sheila just held up the mike to the audience and let us go at it!
At one point it was really funny, she thought we were singing the
wrong lyrics and she said so into the mike and then the next line made
her realize we were dead on it! Don't underestimate the Prince fans,
Sheila! That segued into ALPHABET STREET, which was serviceable. Crowd
went nuts again, the band was really into it and the guitarist Stef
Burns in particular kept a great big hunky Brooklyn grin on his face
the whole set. I was really digging his amiable energy. Miko was
funking it up but not a lot of interaction with him from Sheila who
was right next to him on stage, which makes me wonder a bit about the
state of their relationship. They did a showbiz move with Sheila
saying ‘goodnight' and Juan Escovedo taking the mike saying – "I want
to stay - can I stay?" Sheila shaking her head – crowd goes nuts -
Sheila's hand to her ear – crowd gets louder – Sheila nods "OK".
Tedious when you've seen this kind of thing over and over again.
That's showbiz. A textbook THE GLAMOROUS LIFE closed their set and
rocked my world. My favorite song - something I consider the most
perfect pop song ever put together.

One thing I want to mention about Sheila that has been annoying me the
last few times I've seen her live is that she does that act where she
pretends the crowd isn't giving her enough and then says something
like "Y'all ain't ready" and then gets us to yell louder and then
still acts unsatisfied and expects a louder yell and never seems to
let us know when she IS satisfied. She's done this bit at the last
three gigs I‘ve seen her at and it leaves me with the impression that
nothing would ever satisfy her and just kinda leaves a bad taste in
the mouth. Like we don't ever show enough love. I know it's just a
showbizzy thing, but it' SO contrived and unnecessary. She can leave
that out of the show.

THE TIME
There was a longer break here and then the next bit was really kind of
cute and pointed at the same time. Carmen announced the members of THE
TIME: Jellybean, Jerome, St Paul and ‘special guest', which turned out
to be Sheila dressed as Morris Day in a shiny gold suit with a
moustache and doo rag and they proceeded to knock out a great and very
funny version of JUNGLE LOVE, with Sheila changing up the lyrics to
say things like "I don't have TIME for this – I gots to gets me some
more money. I got a gold rolls Royce let me show ya - show ya" She
even did the funky TIME dance with Jerome (you know the one - where
they grab their stuff and turn?) Later I overheard that Morris
wouldn't perform without being paid so it became apparent that this
was Sheila's revenge. Such a cool chick; she did the best Morris I've
ever seen. She had all the pimp daddy moves and some new ones added!
Saint Paul was in the backline at the keys doing the same steps he did
in Purple Rain. Jesse Johnson who was listed as performing in the
program I bought was never even mentioned. Someone said he called in
at the last minute with a foot injury. Is that musician code for ‘I
scored some crack'?

I think it was really lame that they didn't show up. I mean Morris
showed up at the Aladdin DVD screening here in Hollywood this past
summer just so he could be seen, since he didn't have to be there to
do anything, but he can't be arsed to come to a charity event to hang
with old friends? There's someone who doesn't get it at all. Jesse's
probably an addict so at least that's a reason, but what was Morris's?
Money.

THE REVOLUTION
The moment we were all waiting for. Alan Leeds introduced them as the
band that stood BESIDE the genius and boy was that ironic considering
the no show on his part. As they filed out one by one I was just so
moved by the history of the moment. Leeds pointed out it had been 17
years since they had played together. A fitting number. The five
original members were augmented by some of the members of the so
called "Counterrevolution", Susannah, Eric and Miko and the two
background girls from the house band were situated up front. Wendy
took center stage in a cool looking black velour suit, dark hair
trimmed to Parade era length. Lisa sat up in her ‘apartment' wearing a
knee length open white coat with her hair teased a bit to, again,
‘imply ‘ her look from the Parade era. Very cool. Bobby Z was very
serious looking and they pulled his kit up front a bit so everyone
could see him work. Fink came in a simple leather jacket, but changed
into a purple surgeon's outfit with red stethoscope to boot! Brownmark
wore a brown rag on his obviously bald head and was much larger than I
recall. A huge standing ovation while they set up lead them to launch
right in to MOUNTAINS. Wow. What a moment. It was wonderful to see
them all together again and sounding great. This was the one band, I
think, that wasn't augmented by the house band and even though they
didn't use what I would consider the signature Revolution sounds, like
the Linn Drum or phased high hat or the Oberheim stabs and handclaps,
they were still playing as if they had never parted. According to
Matt, they had reunited the previous night for one rehearsal before
the gig and that was it, so these guys already knew this material like
the back of their hands and it showed. AMERICA came segued right after
and the crowd went crazy again when Wendy ripped out the opening lead
line. She sang it with a lot of energy and her sister backed her up on
the chorus right next to her. I was thrilled that they did POP LIFE
and RASPBERRY BERET next, since those seem like the signature
Revolution tunes to me. Not a lot of interaction between the band
members, but that may have been because they didn't have the time and
needed to focus on their parts. I noticed that Wendy and Lisa didn't
make any eye contact, which makes me wonder if they really have broken
up. I am waiting to see more reports posted from the VIPs to see what
they noticed during the meet ups and the afterparty.

Next was ANOTHERLOVERHOLEINYOHEAD with Eric just tearin up his horn
parts. I wished for a moment Atlanta was there and then that reminded
me of another missing member. Wendy said something about there being a
genius behind these songs and that they all have much love for each
and every one of these songs and she said he's not here tonight but
maybe if we all sing out our hardest and send out that love maybe his
ears will burn a little. PURPLE RAIN was next and at the first strum
people went wild. I was surprised at how well Wendy could handle the
vocal. She sang it softer than I'm used to hearing it but the chorus
just rang out with the extra vocalists. "Did you hear that Prince?"
she said. Looking at their faces Wendy, Susannah and Fink, I could see
that they were really missing Prince and it was getting hard to hide
it. Patti Labelle came out wailing and Wendy flubbed her third verse
and said something about Patti getting her all hot under the collar.
They thanked Shelia for the blessing of this event and then the entire
night's cast (including ticket auction winners) got up on that stage
and a did a raucous BABY I'M A STAR. Jill and Wendy shared the mike on
this one and everyone got a last chance to play with each other.
Jerome grabbed people to dance and contest winners shook their gift
tambourines from the front rows. Wendy even did a few ‘on the ones'
for good measure. Again it was interesting to see who interacted with
who. St Paul went stage left to put his arm around Susannah and
Apollonia stayed next to Sheila E. Sheila's band members huddled
together. There was a lot of mutual respect passing around and it felt
amazing to watch. I was honored to finally see that after all these
years.

And just like that it was over. I was slightly disappointed that the
Revolution didn't get to do their curtain call bow but there were so
many people on stage that it wasn't possible. As I left the stadium, I
felt very satisfied and simultaneously let down by Prince himself. He
taught his protégé's much but he could learn a little emotional
maturity from them now.

I hope to see these guys reform again someday soon, and from the sound
of things they are just looking for an excuse to play together again.
Sheila even said at one point, "Can someone get a promoter to put
together a tour for us?"

One other thing – each one of the participants from the lighting
people to the sound to the promoters and performers donated their time
to this cause. That means Jill Jones probably flew in from New York on
her dime, Matt and Bobby from Minneapolis and so on. That's a lot of
heart. I know that Love4OneAnother donated to the charity and Prince
is listed as 'corporate' in the program (whatever that means), but
these guys wanted to be there to thank the fans for the years and if
Prince can't appreciate that and participate does he deserve the
years? I still say if you can't integrate your past with your present
you have no future.

[iTude]

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Dec 16, 2003, 1:41:44 PM12/16/03

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I posted earlier about Jesse's foot and Morris wanting money. Sucks they didn't show up.

As far as Mico....he just really got out of the biz after he left the Lovesexy band. When Fink
talked to him in the past, he said he just wasn't doing anything with music, and had no desire to
tour or perform. It's odd he showed up for this.

--
Ernest L Sewell, IV
iTude. Wildly Expressive.
--------------------------------------------
www.fourthproductions.net
AIM: ern iTude / MSN: ErnestSewell (hotmail)
Yahoo: ErnestSewell / ICQ: 116434445
Do not add me to any fwd or spam list
--------------------------------------------
You wouldn't let me say the words I longed to say
You didn't want to see life through my eyes
You tried to shove me back inside your narrow room
And silence me with bitterness and lies
You punished me for telling you my fantasies
I'm breakin' all the rules I didn't make
You took my words and made a trap for silly fools
You held me down and tried to make me break
Did I say something true? Did I have a point of view?
What was I thinking? I'm not apologizing
You're the one with the problem
Why don't you just deal with it?
I have no regrets. Just look in the mirror.
"Jestyr" <jesse....@disney.com> wrote in message
news:e4290237.03121...@posting.google.com...

| (Doctor) Fink, Eric Leeds and Sheila E - just the three of them! The

| years ago - I didn't know the lyrics then, and I still don't know them
| now - that's why Miss Patti had to bend down and pick the damn paper

| up to sing the damn song!" Cracked us all up. She did her wailing
| routine a bit which can be annoying, but she's another one who 'gets
| it' - in a different way - but she just 'gets it'.
|
| SHEILA E.
| Sheila's father came out to introduce her and broke us all up with the

| comment "I taught her everything I know. No REALLY - I did!" That was
| sweet. He seems like a cool Dad. They introduced each band member -

| all musicians from the Purple Rain tour during the recording of
| Romance 1600, so their faces were familiar from the album, but I had
| certainly never seen these people play before, and there they were
| hitting every note as if they were still touring on Purple Rain!
| They're really good but the arrangements were a little stretched out
| from the original recordings so when they started OLIVER'S HOUSE
| (after the SISTER FATE intro) with Sheila mumbling the lyrics (I think
| she forgot them in the excitement) no one knew what it was until the
| chorus hit. They followed with great versions of THE BELLE OF ST MARK
| and A LOVE BIZARRE which included a little jazzy section with a 'guest
| appearance' from Lyn Mabry (Sheila pretended to drag her on) singing
| lines from ONE NATION UNDER A GROOVE. HOLLY ROCK was a nice surprise
| and Sheila went off on the timbales during that one. Next up was

| 17DAYS which the crowd went nuts for. As a matter of fact - we sang so

| loud Sheila just held up the mike to the audience and let us go at it!
| At one point it was really funny, she thought we were singing the
| wrong lyrics and she said so into the mike and then the next line made
| her realize we were dead on it! Don't underestimate the Prince fans,
| Sheila! That segued into ALPHABET STREET, which was serviceable. Crowd
| went nuts again, the band was really into it and the guitarist Stef
| Burns in particular kept a great big hunky Brooklyn grin on his face
| the whole set. I was really digging his amiable energy. Miko was
| funking it up but not a lot of interaction with him from Sheila who
| was right next to him on stage, which makes me wonder a bit about the
| state of their relationship. They did a showbiz move with Sheila

| saying 'goodnight' and Juan Escovedo taking the mike saying - "I want
| to stay - can I stay?" Sheila shaking her head - crowd goes nuts -
| Sheila's hand to her ear - crowd gets louder - Sheila nods "OK".

| Tedious when you've seen this kind of thing over and over again.
| That's showbiz. A textbook THE GLAMOROUS LIFE closed their set and
| rocked my world. My favorite song - something I consider the most
| perfect pop song ever put together.
|
| One thing I want to mention about Sheila that has been annoying me the
| last few times I've seen her live is that she does that act where she
| pretends the crowd isn't giving her enough and then says something
| like "Y'all ain't ready" and then gets us to yell louder and then
| still acts unsatisfied and expects a louder yell and never seems to
| let us know when she IS satisfied. She's done this bit at the last
| three gigs I've seen her at and it leaves me with the impression that
| nothing would ever satisfy her and just kinda leaves a bad taste in
| the mouth. Like we don't ever show enough love. I know it's just a
| showbizzy thing, but it' SO contrived and unnecessary. She can leave
| that out of the show.
|
| THE TIME
| There was a longer break here and then the next bit was really kind of
| cute and pointed at the same time. Carmen announced the members of THE
| TIME: Jellybean, Jerome, St Paul and 'special guest', which turned out
| to be Sheila dressed as Morris Day in a shiny gold suit with a
| moustache and doo rag and they proceeded to knock out a great and very
| funny version of JUNGLE LOVE, with Sheila changing up the lyrics to

| say things like "I don't have TIME for this - I gots to gets me some

| One other thing - each one of the participants from the lighting

[iTude]

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Dec 16, 2003, 1:47:18 PM12/16/03

to

PS Wendy and Lisa haven't been a couple for a long time. They obviously still work together, but
they haven't been lovers for years. But there is no bad blood between them.

As I had posted before, Fink said it was a very emotional time during the rehearsals the day or two
before. He didn't mention whether he wished PRince would show up, but I think he probably wanted
him too. He was very excited about it coming together, and everyone gathering to do this. He was
only let down that SHeila's people had dropped the ball on promotion and that they in fact had sold
just over 2000 tix. But he also added, "This won't be a one-time gig either."

After talking to him we agreed to call and record a conversation w/ him about the show and get his
response to everything. I plan to make an MP3 and upload it to wherever and to whoever.